I’m not a golfer but my parents have a gorgeous condo overlooking the 9th hole of a beautiful course, with the Pacific in the background, it’s a truly unique view. They’re on the course a few times a week during spring, summer and fall and they love it.
The title of this post refers to the fact that I have only 4 more sleeps till home! This week, my goal is to get as much exercise as possible with physio and just daily tasks. I won’t have the luxury of physio at home, but my husband was taught how to help me ‘walk’, I just want to find a senior center that has a gym I can use to keep working my legs. Senior center because I will need help getting onto the machines as well as off of them.
Life has become unrecognizable to me. So much planning needed, time, effort, accessibility all play such a huge part in an outing. There’s no such thing as a quick trip anywhere, least of all the bathroom. A trip across the hall to the toilet takes 10 to 15 minutes! And it’s physically taxing. I will say I’m happy to have lost 35 pounds during my stay here, as it makes things easier and less time consuming.
It’s a luxury not to need any help from the nurses, though they keep trying. I’ve almost got Mom trained not to offer help, but wait until I ask. Husband will take a little longer. He can be just a tad impatient from time to time. But they just need to remember that I won’t improve unless I can do things without help.
One of the silver linings of being hospitalized for this long is I had to learn to ask for help and be okay with it. Though it does still bug me that I have to ask here and there but only because people are so happy to be asked that they try to help too much. Example, today I had to ring the nurse to brace my left foot as I stood up from the toilet, that was literally all I needed. Before I could stop her, she had pulled up my pants and undies. Then she grabbed my arms as if to help me into the wheelchair, this was the point where I stopped her politely saying that all I required was bracing my foot and while I appreciate the extras, they’re not necessary, and at this point detrimental to my improving. I feel badly that she pouted, but this is a therapy floor and getting better is the goal. If you know nothing else about me, know that I achieve my goals as quickly as possible.
FOUR!
